Spent about as much time driving to Briones as I did hiking yesterday; didn’t get out of the house till after lunchtime so I figured I’d go to the most accessible trailhead and see what turned up. Conclusion: The trailhead…

Lots of open hills and sunshine makes Briones Regional Park worth checking out in the springtime. I’ve heard tell of massive California poppy blooms here in years past. I’ve driven around Briones once but haven’t gotten around to hiking it…

You’ve no doubt heard of the term “muscle memory.” I think it means, “what happens when your legs have forgotten how to go downhill.” I tested the concept Sunday at Las Trampas Regional Wilderness in Contra Costa County in the…

East Bay Regional Parks is having an open house April 5-6 for the silica/sand mine tours at Black Diamond Mines Regional Park, where you’ll be able to go 810 feet into the mine rather than a mere 400, which was…

One of my rules is: always visit the graveyard. There used to be as many as seven coal mines in these hills near Antioch in northeastern Contra Costa County. The towns that sprouted up around these mines are long gone…

The daring adventurers of California’s past — who energetically cut down most of the trees, polluted most of the streams and killed off all the grizzly bears — did do something beneficial for ensuing generations: they spent lifetimes buying up…